Shimano, Eido Tai

Eido Tai Shimano (嶋野 栄道; born 1932) is a published author and the now retired (read more) Rinzai Zen abbot of the Zen Studies Society (ZSS), a position he resigned from in 2010 following disclosures that he had engaged in sexual misconduct throughout various intervals of his Zen teaching career. Shimano is a Dharma successor of the late Soen Nakagawa roshi of Ryutaku-ji in Japan. He has transmitted Rinzai Zen practice to such Westerners as Roko Sherry Chayat, Genjo Marinello, and Jun Po Denis Kelly.

Eido Shimano was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1932. James Ishmael Ford, in his book Zen Master Who? A Guide to the People and Stories of Zen, notes that the area he was from was in a district that is today in Tokyo but was, in Shimano’s day, the countryside. His first contact with Buddhism occurred when he was nine years old, his school class having to memorize the Heart Sutra. During World War II the Shimanos moved to Chichibu, his mother’s hometown. He was ordained in his youth as a novice monk by by Kengan Goto roshi at Empuku-ji in Chichibu, a Rinzai Zen temple. It was there that he received Dharma name Eido.

He would later train in Tokyo at Heirin-ji with Shirozou Keizan roshi, a strict Rinzai training monastery known for its observance of discipline. There he was given the Mu koan by the teacher, spending more than two years in residence at the monastery. After the death of a resident teacher, Mineo Da roshi, Shimano met Soen Nakagawa and became his student at Ryutaku-ji. In the book Original Dwelling Place: Zen Buddhist Essays by the late Robert Aitken roshi, the author wrote that Shimano was not widely accepted by his fellow monks at Ryutaku-ji.

Shimano had been practicing at Ryutaku-ji for about a year when Nyogen Senzaki made his first and only return trip to Japan to visit with his dear friend Soen. Shimano was impressed by Senzaki roshi, who had been teaching throughout California, mostly in Los Angeles, for many years. Shimano, whose English was adequate, was often a translator for Soen Nakagawa and was therefore a natural choice for sending to Hawaii to assist Robert Aitken roshi in caring for the Honolulu Diamond Sangha in 1960.

According to Robert Aitken roshi, Shimano’s time spent in Hawaii was the source of splits within the Honolulu sangha and there were reports of misconduct which were said to have led to the hospitalization of two female members of Aitken’s sangha. In 1964 Shimano left Hawaii for New York, shortly after the situation had reached a boiling over point with Aitken. In New York, he assumed the position of abbot of the Zen Studies Society, consisting of both New York Zendo Shobo-Ji in Manhattan and Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo-Ji monastery in the Catskills mountains. In 1972 Shimano received Dharma transmission from Soen Nakagawa, becoming his sole Dharma successor living and teaching in the United States.

Fallout

The sexual controversies that have followed Shimano throughout his career have done great damage to his reputation within the broader American Zen community, attracting the ire of his colleagues who wrote letters condemning both the teacher’s actions and the Zen Studies Society board’s seeming inability to have ever adequately addressed the situation. One of Shimano’s fiercest critics was the late Robert Aitken roshi, who had documented and archived evidence of early occurrences of sexual abuse that involved Shimano. Many of these articles and miscellaneous testimonials and other articles pertaining to the abuse have been archived by Kobutsu Malone, another major critic, at his website the Shimano Archives (found at http://www.hoodiemonks.org/ShimanoArchive.html).

Much of the fallout with Shimano among the broader American Zen community occurred due to a widely held perception that he lacked remorse for his actions. This was fueled by a letter he is reported to have sent to the New York Times editor who had initially broken the piece regarding his misconduct in which many felt he minimized what had transpired and failed to fully take ownership of his actions.

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